I brush my thumb over her wrist once more before letting go and pushing to my feet.
“I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”
It takes everything in me not to hover as I step out of the room and head down the stairs.
The guys are hanging out in the living room when I come down. Owen’s in the recliner with his laptop in his lap. Talon and Kade are on the couch, controllers in hand.
They all look up when I walk in.
“How is she?” Talon asks.
“She’s… okay,” I say. “Shookup.”
Kade nods slowly. “Yeah.”
I drag a hand over the back of my neck, exhaling. “She told me something else before I came down.”
That gets their attention.
“What?” Owen asks.
“Her car,” I say. “After it broke down, when she went to pick it up, Caleb told her it looked like someone messed with it. Said something had been loosened, which is what caused it to stall out.”
Talon’s expression tightens. “You’re serious?”
I nod. “She didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
Kade lets out a quiet breath. “But now—”
“Yeah,” I cut in. “Now it doesn’t feel like a coincidence.”
I shake my head, jaw tightening. “If someone was already messing with her car, that could explain why we’ve seen his patrol car hanging out in the alley. He was already watching her.”
“And she didn’t tell you?” Owen asks.
“No.” I huff out a breath. “She said she didn’t think it was a big deal.”
Talon leans back, running a hand through his hair. “It all lines up. It’s almost too obvious.”
Owen’s phone vibrates on the armrest next to him. He glances down at it casually at first, then his brows pull together.
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
“What?” Talon asks.
Owen turns his phone toward us.
“Practice is canceled tomorrow,” he says. “We’re supposed to report in two days for warm-ups before our next game.”
I drop into the recliner across from him.
“They don’t just cancel practice,” Kade says.
“Especially not before a game,” Talon adds.
We all sit there for a second, letting that settle.
“You think it’s because of earlier?” Owen asks.
